Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #511

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Canadian Town Posts Signs Reading: 'Do Not Let Moose Lick Your Car'
By Ben Hooper
Nov. 23 (UPI) -
- Officials in a Canadian town are posting signs with a very impor- tant instruction for local drivers: "Do not let moose lick your car."
The signs, posted in Jasper, Alberta, ask drivers to keep their vehi- cles a safe dis- tance from moose to make sure the animals don't get a taste of the road salt that inevitably ends up covering the sides of cars driving through the alpine town.
"They're obsessed with
salt, it's one of the things they need for the minerals in their body," Jasper National Park
spokesman Steve Young told CNN. "They usually get
it from salt lakes in the park, but now they realized they can also get road salt that splashes onto cars."
Young said letting
moose discover that they can get salt from licking vehicles causes the animals to lose their fear of cars, which can lead to dangerous incidents on the
road.
"Moose and cars are not a good mix. If you hit the moose with your car, you take the legs out from under it and it's
going through your windshield," Young said.
He said people should keep their cars, and them- selves, a safe dis- tance away from moose. He said the population of moose has been rising in the area.
"We've been see- ing a lot more moose lately. The wolf population is decreasing, which means there's fewer predators and the moose population is going up as a result," Young said. "This also means people need to be respectful and give them space."
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